If you liked
Books like The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
by Robert A. Heinlein
Late Heinlein, World as Myth, the Lazarus Long multiverse converging on Luna. If The Cat Who Walks Through Walls hit the right Heinlein notes for you, these five next reads continue the conversation.
The shortlist
What to read next
To Sail Beyond the Sunsetby Robert A. Heinlein
“To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert A. Heinlein 1987 review. The final Heinlein novel, narrated by Maureen Johnson Long, mother of Lazarus Long, across a hundred and fifty years of Howard Families history.”
The Light Of Other Daysby Arthur C. Clarke
“The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter 2000 review. Wormhole technology lets anyone look anywhere, anytime. The end of privacy and the end of secret history arrive in the same decade.”
The Triggerby Arthur C. Clarke
“The Trigger by Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Kube-McDowell 1999 review. A field that detonates all chemical explosives within range arrives in a near-future America. The Second Amendment debate gets a hardware upgrade.”
Tango Midnightby Michael Cassutt
“Tango Midnight by Michael Cassutt 2003 review. A near-future ISS-set thriller in which a crew member is exposed to an airborne pathogen and the rescue mission is forty-eight hours of orbital choreography away.”
Wizards, Inc.by Orson Scott Card
“Wizards, Inc. edited by Orson Scott Card 2007 review. A 13-story anthology of urban-fantasy and corporate-wizardry stories featuring Esther Friesner, Karen Joy Fowler, Lawrence Watt-Evans, and Mark Wandrey.”
FAQ
Common questions about The Cat Who Walks Through Walls read-alikes
- Should I read the rest of the World as Myth sequence first?
- Time Enough for Love is the entry point for the late-Heinlein metafictional multiverse. To Sail Beyond the Sunset is the final volume and arguably the best of the late work. Both are recommended before this one.
- These look like a mix of Heinlein and other writers. Why?
- Because the Heinlein late-career metafictional move (the writer writes himself into the multiverse) is rare. The closest non-Heinlein book that shares its conceptual ambition is Clarke's The Light of Other Days.
- Are any of these from the same era?
- To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987) and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985) are the closest siblings. The Clarke and Cassutt picks are late 1990s and early 2000s.
The original